


Following the Dotted Lines

by orphan_account



Series: Eremin Week [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Books, Fluff, M/M, fluff like wow, tired bbies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-25 16:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1654313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The way to a boy's heart?<br/>A world atlas. </p><p>Day Four: Secret Rendezvous</p>
            </blockquote>





	Following the Dotted Lines

When Eren told him that they should meet by the stables that night Armin wasn’t sure what to think. He wasn’t sure if he should be concerned or not. Eren hadn’t seemed particularly distressed, but there had to be some reason for the meeting. However, he reasoned that it couldn’t be _too_ important if it could wait until night.

Eren was already waiting for him when Armin arrived at the stables shortly after midnight. It was dark except for the small lantern that was placed on the ground next to Eren. He was sitting on the grass, leaning against the wooden side of the stable, with something large resting in his lap. He motioned for Armin to join him and Armin complied. From his seated position it was clear that the object in Eren’s lap was a book.

Eren noticed Armin looking at it, and passed it over to the other boy. It was old looking, starting to come unbound, with even its covers bent at the corners. _World Atlas_ was emblazoned across the front in gold lettering. Armin opened the cover, marvelling at the colourful map on the first page. He’d only seen proper maps of the world contained within the walls. This was so much bigger than that, so much more impressive. There were huge masses of land surrounded by even larger areas of blue. That must have been the ocean.

“Do you like it?” Eren asked, a shy smile spreading over his face.

“Oh,” exclaimed Armin, suddenly pulled back to reality by the sound of his friend’s voice, “Yes! Absolutely, thank you! I-where did you find it?”

Eren’s cheeks flushed red enough that it was obvious even in the dim light. He brought a hand up to ruffle the hair at the back of his neck as he murmured out an answer. “It was in Hanji’s room.”

“You stole it from Hanji?” Armin asked incredulously, “Aren’t you worried they’ll get mad?”

“Borrowed,” Eren corrected him, “and Hanji won’t mind.”

Armin was certain that “won’t mind” actually meant “won’t find out” but it didn’t really matter as long as Eren didn’t get in trouble for it.

Eren reached over, his hand brushing against Armin’s, and turned to the next page.

“Look,” he said, pointing to a word near the middle of the page, “page forty has a map of Asia.”

Armin took that to mean he should flip to page forty so he did just that. Asia was a huge mass of land surrounded by even more smaller fragments of land floating in the water. He couldn’t imagine that there was really a place like that out there. Even including wall Maria, he doubted the world he knew was even close to the size of Asia. That wasn’t even all of it. It was just one bit of an unbelievably huge world. It was amazing.

“So that’s where Mikasa’s family was from,” Eren muttered to himself, not taking his eyes off the page.

“And now she’s all there is…” Armin added sadly.

Eren jerked his head up and looked at Armin.

“It’s no time to get all sad,” he smiled, “not when I stole you a book.”

“You said borrowed.”

Eren shrugged. “I can steal it. If you like it.”

Armin shook his head. “You’re bringing it back to Hanji. After we look at it.”

Armin repositioned himself, snuggling closer to Eren and resting his head on the taller boy’s shoulder. The book sat on their legs, giving both boys a good view of the pages. Eren flipped through until they were back at the first page.

“Ready to explore the world?” he asked.

“Of course.”

* * *

 

The sun had already started to rise by the time they made it to the last page. Armin could barely keep his eyes open, and Eren wasn’t doing any better. His head had started to droop around the time they got to the pages on Australia. Still, they managed to make it through.

“Exploring the world is exhausting,” Eren joked.

Armin nodded in agreement.

“But I’m glad we did.”

Both boys stood up, stretching their tired limbs and brushing the grass off their pants.

“Well,” Eren yawned, “I guess I should get this back before Hanji notices.”

“Wait,” Armin said as Eren started to walk away, “Thank you.”

“No probl-”

“I really mean it Eren. Thank you.”

Eren set the book gently down on the ground and turned back to Armin. He wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, pulling him in close. Armin hugged him back, burying his head in the crook of Eren’s arm.

Eren was the first to pull away. He picked up the book again before saying one more thing to Armin.

“Hanji has a lot of books.”

Armin’s eyes lit up at that. He knew it was wrong, but how could he refuse? Besides, there was a good chance that Hanji would never find out.

“Just not too soon,” he replied, “We need to get some sleep.”

Eren gave him a curt nod and a smile before they parted ways. Armin started off in the direction of the dining hall while Eren went toward Hanji’s room to return the book.

“I can’t ever repay what you did for me Armin,” Eren whispered to himself, “when you showed me that book about the outside world. But I promise I’ll never stop trying.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus Story: What happened to day three?  
> Once upon a time in a far-away northern kingdom there lived a girl who thought she could write. This girl had convinced herself that fairytale Eremin was going to happen. All the signs seemed to point to failure, but the girl would not give up. She worked on, adding word after word in hopes of fixing the disaster that was her third day fic. Finally, approaching word four thousand, with no end in sight, she gave up. She turned off her computer and went to the kitchen, where she found ice cream. She drowned all her troubles in the chocolate-y goodness, vowing that she would never again attempt to write. However, the next day, she found new inspiration. She looked at the internet, and the internet looked at her. "Write Eremin," it seemed to say, "Write, woman!" So, this girl opened up a new word document and started afresh. After all, it was a new day. That day went much better, with her producing something that she deemed "good enough". Pleased-ish with her work, this girl then took a nap, dreaming sweet dreams of anime characters. She and her anime character dreams lived happily ever after. THE END.


End file.
